Prompt
For your paper you will write on one issue from applied ethics from the perspective of one of the normative ethical theories we have covered during the course (utilitarianism/consequentialism, Kantianism/deontological ethics, virtue ethics, the ethics of care). The issue you write on can be one of the ones we cover in class, one of the ones from our brainstorming session, or one of your own choosing. Nearly any morally controversial issue would be suitable for this assignment.
Below is the list of issues that we came up with during our brainstorming session in class:
Disability rights
Elder rights
Social media
Cloning/stem cells/organ donation
Abortion
LGBT rights
Death penalty
Gun control
Drug decriminalization
If you are unsure whether a topic would be suitable for this assignment, please feel free to ask me during office hours or via email.
Regardless of which issue and normative ethical theory you choose, you will be expected to do 4 things in your paper:
Present and explain the issue from applied ethics in detail
Present and explain what one of the normative ethical theories would say about this issue.
Present and explain one objection that could be given to what is said by this normative ethical theory on this issue.
End by saying what your own thoughts on the issue are and why.
Length and Formatting
Length: 3-5 pages
Formatting: 12-point font, 1” margins, Times New Roman or Calibri, double-spaced.
Citations: You may use any method of citing you would like, provided that you give enough information for me to find the works and passages you are citing. In-text, footnotes, and endnotes, with or without a works-cited page, are all acceptable. At least the name of the author, name of the work, and year of publication should be included for every citation, with page numbers in addition being ideal. Either APA or MLA is ideal.
Note: You are not required to utilize outside sources, but you are free to use them if you would like. That being said, do be careful with what sources you use. You should not cite anything that is not from a peer-reviewed journal. If you are unsure whether a source would be appropriate, please feel free to reach out to me for help. I would not recommend drawing upon more than 1 outside source, as you will not have the room to include too much information. PhilPapers.org is the best resource for finding peer-reviewed philosophy articles.
Regardless of the topic you choose to write on, you are free to use any ideas that come up during lecture, office hours, or in the Hypothes.is annotations.
A Few Tips
Feel free to talk to me regarding the papers during office hours for help with either the philosophical material or the writing itself.
The goal with these papers is to present the theories and positions as clearly and concisely as possible and demonstrate your understanding of the material. The goal is not to present a knockdown or unassailable argument for your favored position. You can get an A on the paper even if your arguments are not ultimately successful (and note that very few arguments from professional philosophers are successful either).
For the purposes of this paper, imagine your reader as someone who is reasonably intelligent and charitable, but has never taken a philosophy course and has no prior knowledge of any of these topics. If you could not give your paper to a friend at Allan Hancock College who is not in the course and have them understand it, you need to explain things in more detail.
Avoid using overly flowery language. Treat this more like a scientific report on a particular theory than as a piece of literature.
Feel free to use “I-language”, such as “In this paper I will argue that. . .”, “I don’t find this objection compelling because . . .”, and so on.
Signpost liberally throughout your paper, i.e. say throughout the paper what you are trying to do in each section. At the beginning of each paragraph, make clear what the goal for that paragraph will be, i.e. “One argument for this theory is . . .”, “This argument fails because . . .”, etc.
Try to avoid using jargon if possible. Where jargon is used, make sure that it is clearly defined the first time you use it.
Read your paper out loud while editing. Doing so helps you catch awkward phrasing and issues with flow that you would not recognize otherwise. Having a friend read your paper also helps with this, as having more eyes on your paper guarantees more issues will be caught.
